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In a personalized learning environment, collaborative learning is crucial because it provides students with a voice by encouraging meaningful discussion, exposure to varying perspectives, and purposeful reflection. Psychologist Lev Vygotsky concluded that "that language is the main tool that promotes thinking, develops reasoning, and supports cultural activities like reading and writing" (Vygotsky 1978). In order for expanded collaboration to be effective and successful in personalized learning environments, the school must emphasize the importance of building positive relationships between educators and students across grade levels. We are shaped by our surroundings and our culture. Through our interactions and conversations with one another, we construct knowledge and meaning of the world around us. According to Zeiser, collaboration is not simply assigning students to groups and leaving them to figure it out themselves. To support expanded collaboration, we can design learning experiences that supports social learning and model to our students how to effectively collaborate with one another. Instructional designers should utilize effective tools and strategies to encourage responsive teaching, learning, and real time feedback from students and families. It is equally important for students to be engaged in planning using goal setting strategies and designing learning paths.
Working together to achieve a common goal produces higher achievement and greater productivity than working alone (Gillies, 2016). It is pertinent for instructional designers to structure learning with the following ideas in mind. According to Gillies, positive interdependence among group members should be promoted through learning. This means that learners collaborate to achieve a common goal. Students should be held accountable for their own actions throughout the engaged learning process. Each student is in charge of his or her own contributions to the project or task. Because students are pursuing a shared objective, they should engage in positive interactions and encourage one another. Teachers can help students develop interpersonal skills by demonstrating how to effectively communicate, solve problems, and overcome challenges with their peers. Finally, time should be set aside for group processing. Students should evaluate their effectiveness as a group and create plans to improve it.
Jennifer Gonzalez (2020) shares four common obstacles that educators face with collaborative learning and how to alleviate the problems. In some cases, student contributions are uneven. Gonzalez shares many strategies to combat this problem. Teacher can "explicitly teach collaborative skills, use cooperative structures, establish norms and expectations ahead of time." Another obstacles is interpersonal conflicts interfere with productivity. Teachers can incorporate team building strategies to promote positive learning environments. It is important to allows students with the opportunity to voice their opinion. Teachers can survey students or offer reflection sheets to gauge students ability to collaborate with their peers. The third problem is off-task behavior wastes time. to tackle this obstacle, teachers can display timers to pace work time and continuously check in with students to ensure progress. It is also equally important to reflect on the overall activity. Tasks should be authentic, engaging, and culturally responsive to students.
Instances of Effective Coaching
Collaborative Conversations
As educators, it is important to effectively coach students to collaborate in group work. In my fourth grade classroom, I teach students how to collaborate with one another in small group settings and whole group settings. Collaborative Conversations shares four ways for students to interact: 1) contribute, 2) add on, 3) invite others, and 4) listen. I teach students the purpose of each strategy, how to effectively implement them in groups with peers, and what each strategy communicates to our group members. By explicitly modeling expectations and sharing the purpose of each strategy, students will engage in meaningful instructional conversations.
Varied Roles in Collaborative Work
In collaborative learning environments, it is important for students to value the contributions of all members in their group to achieve a shared vision. One way to encourage accountability and promote healthy group work is to design learning opportunities with varied roles and responsibilities. In the Frayer Model above, students are investigating vocabulary terms from the water cycle. For each of the quadrants, the colors indicate the team member that is responsible for that portion of the graphic organizer. There are four terms and four group members. I coach students to share the responsibility. The roles for the frayer model are rotated for each vocabulary term, so that each member can participate equally.
Accountable Talk in Feedback & Sharing
Conversations during collaborative work should be meaningful, intentional, and respectful. Teachers should model and support accountable talk in the classroom. This work encourages students to practice their listening and speaking skills. Accountable Talk is purposely pushing students to have richer and deeper instructional conversations with one another. This work allows students to critically analyze and activate higher order thinking as they provide feedback or share ideas with each other. In my classroom, I have Accountable Talk Posters displayed in an area that is accessible to all students during our conversations of learning. This is a digital version, so that students can refer to as they work with one another in small groups.
Tools for Real-Time Feedback
Google Workspace for Education
This is my preferred platform for real-time feedback because my school and county adopted Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals tools for productivity and collaboration. A benefit to using a cloud-based software like Google Workspace for Education Fundamentals is that it automatically saves progress and students can access their work from their Google Drive. Google Slides, Google Docs, Google Jamboard, and Google Forms allow me to easily share and distribute resources and templates to my students. Students can work on the same slides, documents, and presentation and communicate with one another. I can easily share links to students, parents, and other stakeholders to support student learning. These tools supports expanded collaboration because students can monitor their progress in learning, receive feedback from peers and teachers, and reflect on learning to improve. The resulting data and information collected from these tools allows educators to analyze misconceptions and make plans for improvement. This can be shared with stakeholders to support student learning and progress. Students can also use data to help monitor their progress towards mastery.
Google Slides
Google Docs
Google Jamboard
Google Forms
ClassKick
ClassKick is a digital platform that allows teachers to design and provide lessons to students. As students work at their own pace engaging with various tools/manipulatives, teachers are able to monitor learning and provide meaningful feedback throughout the learning process. This technology tool allows teachers and students to gather evidence of learning and reflect on the learning as well. ClassKick provides opportunities for teachers to differentiate content and give effective feedback to students immediately. This allows all learners to access learning content, facilitate their own learning, and reflect on immediate feedback. This work can impact motivation and achievement. ClassKick also supports student engagement by elevating higher order learning activities, differentiating and personalizing learning, and enabling collaboration with peers. Educators can use ClassKick to promote communication with peers by enabling the Peer Helpers function. Students can get support and feedback from peers. This tool allows opportunities for students to communicate clearly and express themselves creatively. Teachers can share with parents and community with a specific code. The data collected from ClassKick can help teachers plan strategy groups to meet the needs of individual students and drive instruction in the classroom. This work will allow students to collaborate effectively with their peers.
ClassKick (Class View)
ClassKick (Student View)
ClassKick (Class View)
Artifacts of Relationship Building
Positive collaboration between the parents, the community, and the school will establish a solid foundation to support learners in achieving academic success. It is necessary to build strong relationships in order to support the ultimate goal of student success and achievement.
As educators, we can build relationships within our school buildings.
We can build connections and cultivate a community within our classrooms.
Lastly, we can build bridges with our community and families.
As educators, we can build relationships within our school buildings.
At my school, all teachers participate in Collaborative Learning Teams to analyze student performance, engage in meaningful discussions, set goals for learning, reflect on implementation of new strategies, and share experiences to improve our craft and grow from each other. This work as a team ensures that learning is student focused. The data and observations are analyzed and discussed to inform and impact instruction. In order for effective collaboration to exist, the work environment must be built on trust and mutual respect. At my school, our greatest professional development is learning from one another. Many of our professional development is job embedded because it promotes collaborative work environments and empowers teachers within our buildings. We have "Y'all Come Sessions" where we seek support from one another or from staff within the building when needed. This space cultivates a shared community of stakeholders that are supporting all learners to succeed. It is absolutely necessary to have positive work relationships between members of grade levels, administration, and all members within the school buildings.
Collaborative Learning Teams (CLT)
Y'all Come Sessions
Y'all Come Sessions
2. We can build connections and cultivate a community within our classrooms.
Within our very own classrooms, it is important for teachers to model and cultivate a positive learning environment that highlights the importance of building healthy relationships to teach students how to develop interpersonal skills. In the Ted Talk, Rita Pierson shares a quotes from James Comer “No significant learning occurs without a significant relationship.” Learning is all about building relationships. As educators, we can demonstrate how to effectively communicate, solve problems, and overcome challenges through class meetings. This work allows space and time for students to vocalize their concerns or highlight any celebrations. This should be paired with accountable talk stems to help students develop effective speaking and listening skills. Building positive peer to peer relationships supports student confidence, motivation, and academic success because it creates a community of trust. Another way to build relationships within the classroom is to care for one another and support each other. I send out a Google Forms for students to invite me to a special event. This communicates to students that they matter and what they care about is important. We cheer each other on and root for their successes. To foster collaboration, we must value all members of the classroom by showing students that we are there for them through school and life.
Class Meetings
Invite Ms. Nguyen
3. Lastly, we can build bridges with our community and families.
Student improvement is a collective effort and requires the support of the community. To build bridges with families, it is important for educators to create opportunities and pathways for parents and families to support the growth of their child. To do this work, I share successes, events, and more through ClassDojo. This platform allows us to share with other another easily. This allows all stakeholders to be on the same page and support the child. I also believe that positive communication will build strong relationships. One effort that I try to do frequently is send happy mail to families. This is a brief message that shares the growth of their child and promotes positivity. Another way to involve parents is to ask for feedback and suggestions. By opening paths of communication, it allows parents and community members to be involved in the decision making and build unified relationships.
ClassDojo
Happy Mail
Suwanee Express
Instances of Timely Personal Interaction
Provide Feedback with Peer Feedback Choice Boards
In this strategy, students will provide timely feedback to their peers on their drafts. The Peer Feedback Choice Boards support personalized learning because it ensures choice in the process of providing feedback. Students are give opportunities to choose how they give feedback. They can notice the greatest strengths, suggest tiny tweaks, celebrate surprises, seek further development, and clarify confusions in drafts. Peer feedback is most effective when it is specific and focused. The choice board partitions the work into specific categories that encourages students to provide detailed feedback to support their peers. This is shared to students on Google Docs, so that they may respond in real time to support their classmates.
Monitor Progress through Daily Progress Checks
I utilize Google Forms to monitor student progress throughout the math unit. Students visit the same Google Forms and answer a few questions related to the topic each day. I portioned the progress check into sections and correlate the sections to the day of the week. After the lesson, students respond to selected or constructed responses. This tracks the progress students make throughout the week. Students are able to review their work daily, make changes, and reflect on their learning. I analyze and use the data to create strategy groups to support student learning immediately. Using Google Forms ensures immediate feedback to all students and allows me to support growth. It is also beneficial to use digital tools to share progress with families.
Reflect and Celebrate Learning
To wrap up a lesson or activity, I display a reflective question to promote reflective learning. Students can reflect on their progress and celebrate learning using digital tools like Google Jamboard or Padlet. When students post their responses, each student can interact with peers or teachers in a timely manner. When students are provided time to reflect on their learning, it provides a chance for us to step back and analyze the progress we've made so far. Reflective learning on digital platforms encourage purposeful discussion and exposure to varying perspectives.
References
Barshay, J. (2018, September 24). Working in a group might be the best way to help kids meet individual goals, study says. https://hechingerreport.org/working-in-a-group-might-be-the-best-way-to-help-kids-meet-individual-goals-study-says/
Fisher, D. & Fray. N. (2021, March 1). The good, the bad, and the new plcs. Corwin Connect. https://corwin-connect.com/2019/05/the-good-the-bad-and-the-new-plcs/
Gillies, R. M. (2016). Cooperative learning: Review of research and practice. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 41(3). Retrieved from https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2902&context=ajte
Gonzalez, J. (2021, April 29). Making cooperative learning work better. https://www.cultofpedagogy.com/making-cooperative-learning-work-better/
Neff, L. (n.d.). Lev Vygotsky and social learning theories. https://jan.ucc.nau.edu/lsn/educator/edtech/learningtheorieswebsite/vygotsky.htm
TED. (2021, January 31). Build relationships with your students. PBS LearningMedia. https://gpb.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/83f0beff-a14a-434d-b551-4b53e3dee640/ted-talks-education-build-relationships-with-your-students/
Tutt, P. (2021, October 8). Teaching kids to give and receive quality peer feedback. https://www.edutopia.org/article/teaching-kids-give-and-receive-quality-peer-feedback
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